The Martians Are Coming Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Sands of Mars

"The Sands of Mars" was published in 1951, well before the start of the space race. Mars has been colonised but remains largely unexplored. When a native species is discovered it is a kangaroo-like vegetarian creature with limited intelligence.

Answer: A flying carpet

In Edwin Lester-Arnold's 1905 novel Gulliver Jones travels to Mars on a flying carpet. Once there he encounters two species of Martian, the Hithers and the Thithers. Although the book was not very successful when first published, it has since come to be regarded as an important development in 20th century science fiction writing.

Answer: Geoffrey A. Landis

Although he had previously won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for best short story "Mars Crossing" was the first full length novel for Geoffrey A.Landis. It has been described as the best novel about Mars exploration ever written.

Answer: Martians Go Home

Published in 1955, Frederic Brown's Martians are green, small, have bald heads and six fingers on each hand. They also find humanity vastly inferior to them and spend their time heckling and laughing at us. Eventually this stops most human activity and drives some people insane. In 1989 the book was adapted into a film starring Randy Quaid.

Answer: Martian Spring

Written by Michael Lindsay Williams, "Martian Spring" has an upper atmosphere explosion altering the axis of the plane. This causes the Martians, who have been hibernating, to awake. They are depicted as gentle, kindly, telepathic creatures, in contrast to the genetically engineered and bitter protagonist.

Answer: William Shatner

Scififan.com describes "Man O'War", published in 1996, as "Captain Kirk joins the diplomatic corps and goes to Mars". Captain Kirk is Benton Hawkes and he is sent to Mars to sort out a crisis. The workers are in revolt and it is up to him to save the day. William Shatner has produced over 20 science fiction books.

Answer: Ray Bradbury

The short stories that make up "The Martian Chronicles" were written and published separately between 1946 and 1950. They were put together and published as a whole book in 1950. The stories tell the history of Earth's contact with and colonisation of Mars, and of our eventual failure.

Answer: Brian Aldiss

"White Mars" by Brian Aldiss has no connection to the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy of "Red Mars", "Blue Mars" and "Green Mars". Published in 1999 it tells the tale of travellers stranded on Mars who decide to build their own society. It looks at this through the eyes of various participants in the venture.

Answer: Voyage

Published in 1997, this book looks at what might have happened if, after the 1969 moon landings, NASA had continued on to Mars. The science and politics are very realistic and give a very believable scenario.

Answer: The Martian Race

"The Martian Race" was written by Gregory Benford and published in 1999. A $30 billion prize is offered for the first manned landing on Mars. While NASA is stuck in bureaucracy and politics businessman John Axelrod and his backers decide to seize their chance